Left: Larger than Life: Gough Whitlam in Cartoons exhibition at the Female Orphan School Below: Her Excellency the Honourable Quentin Bryce AC CVO opens the Female Orphan School, 24 September 2013 The Female Orphan School Opening, 24 September 2013
The collection continues to grow in significance, as others such as Whitlam’s speech writer and confidante, Graham Freudenberg, and Whitlam ministers donate their papers to the collection. ‘The fact that the Whitlam Institute sits within this particular building seems very fitting, because like Macquarie, Whitlam was a national visionary and had very clear ideas about Australia’s responsibilities in the world,’ says Sidoti. ‘So within the building itself, you have the coming together of the story of the University, the story of the Female Orphan School, the story of Australia’s social and democratic history, and that’s a fundamentally exciting story to be told.’ The restoration has also seen the Female Orphan School transformed into a truly public building, with the inclusion of a Visitor Information Centre, which features a display on the history of the building, education and function spaces, and galleries. A permanent exhibition, A Changing Australia: The Time of Gough Whitlam, highlights key objects in the Whitlam Prime Ministerial Collection, and explores how Gough Whitlam and his government not only reformed Australia’s laws and institutions, but changed the way Australia sees itself. Adjacent to this exhibition is an education space to host visitors, and the Whitlam Institute is developing a comprehensive schools and community outreach program. Following the September opening, over 1000 visitors had already passed through the door by Christmas, including school and university groups, National Trust groups and international delegations. The west wing of the building houses the Margaret Whitlam Galleries, the University art gallery space, which
features traveling exhibitions from other institutions as well as exhibitions created by the University’s Art Curator Monica McMahon. A recent exhibition, Uplifted Horizons: The artists of the Whitlam era, featured works from the UWS Art Collection and the Whitlam Prime Ministerial Collection by Australian artists such as Brett Whiteley, Arthur Boyd, John Coburn, John Olsen, Brian Dunlop, Keith Looby and Lloyd Rees. Sidoti says that as hoped, the Female Orphan School is already becoming a democratic space, in which ‘the University is more steward than owner of the building on the public’s behalf’. ‘It is absolutely wonderful to hear it come to life again. Just before Christmas, there was a day where we had a UWS Board of Trustees meeting here, then there was a sit-down farewell lunch in the west wing for the outgoing Vice-Chancellor. At the same time, we had 90 school children on a visit, we had an academic seminar in one of the meeting rooms, and the Whitlam Institute Secretariat doing our everyday business here, so the whole place was buzzing.’ With the Female Orphan School now very much open to the public, the Whitlam Institute is seeking volunteers to assist with the building’s activities year-round, through the Friends of the Female Orphan School program. Volunteers provide information to visitors and answer questions about the building and its history, monitor exhibition spaces and assist with sales and promotion activities. With UWS also celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2014, the Parramatta campus will play host to some exciting events on 29 March, including an Autumn fair and an evening theatrical event within the Female Orphan School.
For more information about the Female Orphan School, including opening hours, the program of exhibitions and how you can get involved in the Friends of the Female Orphan School volunteer program, visit uws.edu.au/fos.
GradLife Autumn 2014
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